Mandrill, Mo is not a representation of the Holy Prophet, but a body double, as portrayed at http://www.jesusandmo.net/2005/11/24/body/. The riots were prevented by the banning of the site in Pakistan. Jolly good thing too. Wouldn’t want more people getting killed unnecessarily.

TB, India makes GoogleMaps rub out their defence sites. China stops its internet users accessing wikipedia. American neo-cons promote fundamentalist religion. I guess the whole world sucks in one way or another. It’s just a fact of life. That Pakistan censors Jesus and Mo can be justified in order to prevent the sorts of riot we saw after a Danish paper published a cartoon. The good people of Pakistan are being deprived of a good laugh and a chance to realise how DEEPLY wrong their religion is. But the undeniable existence of the Jesus and Mo cartoon strip provides hope that love can prevail. Have faith!

So you have no faith that humanity will some day see the abuse of sprirituality through religion for what it is? If so then why leave comments on this board? If it’s a wasted cause then what’s the point in supporting it?

Without parallel? All religions have parallel’s in (believe it or not) other religions, or do you not see the similarity between Karma and “do unto others as you would have done unto yourself”.

That would mean (gasp, shock, horror) that Bierce is wrong yet, dogmatically, he is quoted here as “proof” of the invalidity of religion.

Tell you something, when South Park bundled the atheists in with all the other blind faiths they hit the nail on the head.

Hi folks, let’s sort out some terminology first. Faith, as I see it, is the mental process required to believe an assertion that is both unprovable AND impossible. There are plenty of assertions (string theory, alien life, my wife’s fidelity) which can’t be tested or falsified but which don’t don’t defy known natural law (okay, maybe not my wife’s fidelity). You don’t need “faith” to believe those particular assertions, but trust. Trust, being the product of reason and experience, is the diametrical opposite of faith, which actively vilifies rationality and respect for reality.
Which means that no rational person ever needs faith in their lives, it’s just a destructive mental conjuring trick to make infantile superstition bearable to supposedly grown-up intellects.
So Roodby, I myself have no “faith” in humanity’s better instincts. But I do, in my more optimistic moments, have a ton of trust.

you misunderstand the bierce quotation and you misquote the person posting it.

1. ‘ w/o parallel’ doesn’t mean ‘non-analagous’, nor is he referring to one religion vs others. he means ‘extraordinary or supernatural explanations’. in other words, his quote could be paraphrased as ‘faith is the believing in extraordinary things without having the evidence to do so by a person who has no knowledge of those things.’ not as pithy, but maybe clearer in meaning to 21st century speakers.

Personally, I’m just going to PRETEND that christians, muslims and religious adherants everywhere are reading and learning from some of the insights on this website, even though I don’t BELIEVE it. (would be nice though).

But I do have FAITH that somebody, somewhere has some idea what Roodbooy is talking about. We sure don’t. (Think ironic reversal with a sarcastic inflection.)

Necessarily Evil, I would like to know how is Islam “DEEPLY wrong”? Please explain somebody?
First, no I am not Islamic, but let me tell you that if you look to the core of the religions, almost all of them are pretty much the same and aren’t bad. It is the people who practice them that make them look “evil”.
Some extreme Muslims make the religion Islam looks bad, but don’t forget there was a time when church burnt people alive for no other reason than contradiction the church.
It’s all the same everywhere… it’s the people who make them look bad. Almost all the religions, in their true form intend good – not harm.

..i know this is way late. but, contrary to what jONES. believed..I’m totally reading all this stuff…and on here, I would be labeled a Christian..although I don’t prefer to affiliated with the religion because a lot of this stuff about their behavior is true. It’s disgraceful, regardless of religion.

Where does this idea that Abrahamic religions are inherently peaceful come from?
Whenever I have read the bible, which I have done, and segments from the Torah and Koran, it is full of unspeakable cruelty, evil and violence, on a scale truly sickening and repugnant, and to practice these religions with any kind of accuracy would end up with incarceration, in most countries anyway.
Those who think that Christ’s only message was peace and love are ill educated.
Those who honestly practice the ‘word of god’ would be indistinguishable from very, very unpleasant fundamentalists.
So why do the religious moderate and ignore these indubitable and unassailable commands?
Because they are either impractical or unpleasant.
Religious tolerance revolves around letting people inflict insanity on other people, respecting religious belief seems to revolve around religious people being offensive and then I am not allowed to call them out on it.

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I love the scrappy mockery of Jesus and Mo. Freedom of speech
includes the freedom to mock any person, any thing, any activity, and
any belief -- and J&M stands up for this unflinchingly Richard Stallman